Everybody Talks-Neon Trees

Today was our official debriefing day and it was busy.  There was so much to discuss and share.  We began by discussing the value of education in Brazil, the structure of Brazil’s education system, and youth concerns and issues.  We looked at the pros/cons of each of these, as well as the historical and culture foundations and what we can learn from Brazil. 

We then discussed a lingering emotion and a memory that triggered that emotion.  Emily, our program coordinator from IREX reminded us that when we get back, we will want to share a lot about our trip and people won’t really want to hear it all.  I have found this to be true.  Whenever I return from somewhere people ask how the trip was, how was the weather and how was the food.  Rarely do people want to sit and listen to all of the cultural stories I want to share (so thanks for reading my blog and reading my stories along the way! J)  The exercise was designed to help us pinpoint one or two stories that impacted us during our time that we could share when people asked about our trip.  If I had to sum up my experience in the schools I would say I was impressed with how the teachers in Brazil do so much with so little and the students are so excited and eager to learn.  Despite the fact that there are many obstacles to overcome, I am optimistic about Brazil’s continued growth.

In the afternoon we talked about our essential questions and how we will build on these experiences in our own classrooms and share the information with our own students.  The ideas were exciting to hear and I left feeling slightly overwhelmed but excited about the opportunities I can create for students in my own classroom.

In the afternoon Brazil was playing Uruguay in the semi-final match of the Confederation Cup and Tami and I felt obligated to watch since every time we have watched Brazil has won.  We changed into our lucky shirts and watched the game on the big screen in the lobby.  Brazil won 2-1 which is really exciting because the finals are in Rio de Janiero the day we arrive!

sunset in Salvador

Old town

That evening we all went down to the old town part of Salvador called Pelourinho.  This area was the original part of Salvador and contains amazing architecture, colorful buildings, cobblestoned streets, and large town squares.  It’s a beautiful area and the atmosphere was as palpable as the humidity.  People were excited (and a little drunk) after Brazil’s victory, and there was music pounding, people dancing in the streets, restaurant owners vying for patrons, the smells of delicious food wafting through the streets.  We walked around a bit to take in the atmosphere and then went to Teatro Miguel Santana for a folklore show.  As I mentioned, the cultural of Salvador is known for combining Portuguese, Native Brazilian, and African.  All throughout the city there are statues and monuments dedicated to these three groups and the city as a whole is proud of this heritage.  During the slave period, slaves were not allowed to follow their original African religions and were forced to follow Catholicism.  However, they were tricky and just made each Saint in the Catholic religion represent a different god in their own religion.  As a result, a mixed religion developed called Condomblé.  The folklore show we watched demonstrated traditional music and dancing of the Condomblé religion.  It was exciting and the dancers were pretty nice to look at too ;)  In addition to the religious rituals, they also demonstrated capoeira, which was unbelievably athletic.  Luckily no videos were allowed so you can’t compare our lesson in Brasilia with these professionals!  Capoeira also has an interesting story behind it as slaves would use the martial arts type dance as a way to work out their aggression towards the slave owners.  It appears as if they are fighting with wild kicks and acrobatic moves, but when questioned they told the slave owners that they were just doing traditional dances.  I wish capoeira classes were offered in Bozeman, it is definitely something I would like to pursue.

After arriving back at the hotel I had a snack of grilled pineapple with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce-delicioso!

dessert-yum!